Eduardo Hernández-Pacheco
(Madrid, 1872 - Alcuéscar, Cáceres, 1965)

Eduardo Hernández-Pacheco y Estevan belonged to the generation
of Spanish scientists whose life and professional prime coincided with the existence of the Junta para Ampliación de Estudios  (JAE), an institution that helped them tremendously.

After completing his secondary education in Badajoz, he studied natural sciences in Madrid and Barcelona. He established contacts with reformist and liberal circles that shared his interest on the promotion of science and the appreciation of nature. His teachers, naturalists associated with the Institución Libre de Enseñanza, such as zoologist Ignacio Bolívar, and geologists José Macpherson, Francisco Quiroga, and Salvador Calderón, encouraged his interests.

Following his mentors’ example, his scientific inquiry led him to explore several fields, such as geology, geography, paleontology, and prehistory. He integrated geographical and anthropological aspects in his works, such as Rasgos fundamentales de la constitución e historia geológica del solar ibérico (1922), Síntesis fisiográfica y geológica de España (1932-1934), and Fisiografía del solar hispano (1955-1956). He presented a scientific theory of landscape in El paisaje en general y las características del paisaje hispano (1934.)  He was actively involved with the Central Board of National Parks and its conservation activities, especially in the late 1920s and early 30s.

His teaching career started in 1899 when he obtained a job as teacher of natural history at the High School in Córdoba. He became an influential figure in cultural circles through his lectures and field trips,
and was elected councilman for the Liberal party. The creation of the JAE and its support to the Museum of Natural Sciences gave him the opportunity to develop a much more ambitious career. In 1907, he was commissioned to conduct research in the Canary Islands. He won the chair of Geognostic and Stratigraphic Geology at the Universidad Central in 1910, and became director of the Geology and Paleontology section of the Museum. In 1912, the JAE established the Commission of Prehistoric and Paleontological Research, linked to the Museum, and appointed the Marquis de Cerralbo as director, and Hernández-Pacheco as head of research. He became director in 1923, after Cerralbo’s death in 1922. He also won the chair of Physical Geography at the university in 1923.

Hernandez-Pacheco’s prominence in scientific circles of his time is evident. The diversity of positions he held and the lines of work he developed obviously required the collaboration of colleagues and disciples, including his son, Francisco Hernández-Pacheco de la Cuesta. His mobility and capacity for work were staggering. He constantly traveled on field trips throughout the Iberian Peninsula, the Canary Islands, and North Africa. Crossing the academic borders of science, he became actively involved in other activities, such as the first policies for nature conservation.

After the Civil War, despite his Liberal and Republican affiliations, Hernández-Pacheco was allowed to remain in Spain.  Franco’s régime opted in his case for tolerance in order to retain a renowned figure in prominent positions in the diminished scientific community as a result of the Civil War. In the last stage of his career, he still produced a considerable amount of scientific research, mostly dedicated to comprehensive compilation and synthesis. However, he could not continue working with nature conservation, since the government did not establish new channels for the participation of the academic or civic institutions in the project.